(RICHLAND, WA) – A Bonneville Power Administration cold-weather related transmission event led to a Columbia Generating Station reactor scram – safe shutdown of the reactor – at 11:24 a.m. today. Equipment malfunctioned at the nearby Ashe Substation, resulting in loss of the 500 kilovolt line connecting the plant’s main output transformers to the substation.In response, Columbia’s output breakers properly opened to separate the plant from any potential grid transients. Columbia’s operating crew successfully stabilized the plant.“It’s unfortunate that this happened while we were on our way to closing out what still may be a record generation year,” said Bob Schuetz, plant general manager at Columbia. “The plant remains safe, and we anticipate being back on the grid once we have more thoroughly reviewed what caused the BPA transmission event.”All of Columbia’s electricity is sold at cost to BPA. Ninety-two Northwest utilities receive a percentage of its output.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

(PASCO, WA) – The Pacific Northwest’s hydropower legacy
received a boost with the declaration of December 15 as “Hydropower
Appreciation Day” in Benton and Franklin Counties.

The two public utility district commissions approved
resolutions celebrating the Columbia and Snake River’s hydro system.

“Benton PUDs customers receive about 78 percent of their
electricity from hydroelectric dams,” said Lori Sanders, commission president.
“The Northwest today is an oasis of clean, carbon free, renewable energy - the result of its hydro heritage. The dams on the Columbia River and its
tributaries produce more electricity than any other North American river and
account for 40 percent of all U.S. hydropower. The four lower Snake River dams
include some of the most advanced and successful fish passage systems in the
world.”

“Along with carbon-free energy, the Columbia and Snake River
hydro system provides low-carbon transport of tens of millions of dollars of
farm goods and manufactured products through an efficient barging system,” said
Roger Wright, Franklin PUD commission president. “Irrigation has made eastern
Washington State boom with an amazing array of agricultural bounty. The system
of dams and locks also provides flood control, keeping our homes and cities
safe from high waters.”

Hydroelectricity is the crown jewel that makes renewable
power sources like wind and solar work in the Pacific Northwest. Hydropower can
be called on at a moment’s notice to fill in the gaps when there isn’t enough
wind or sun to generate electricity. Clean, reliable and renewable energy is
the reason big companies like Google, BMW, REC Silicon and others have located
operations in our region. This helps reduce their carbon footprint, save money
on operations, and raise their status among their competitors.

The two PUDs also reaffirmed their support for continuing
efforts to balance the benefit of hydropower with the responsibility of
protecting, improving, and sustaining fish and wildlife that are dependent on
the Columbia and Snake River’s ecosystem.

Benton PUD and Franklin PUD are members of Northwest River
Partners, an alliance of farmers, utilities, ports and businesses that promote
the economic and environmental benefits of the Columbia and Snake rivers; fish
and wildlife policies and programs based on sound science; and clean,
renewable, reliable hydropower. Fast
facts on why hydropower should be celebrated can be found at: http://nwriverpartners.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/NWRP_pocket_guide_2015_FINAL.pdf.

(WASHINGTON,
DC) – The Fish and Wildlife Service is expected this week to issue its final
rule extending the period in which wind projects can be permitted to injure or
kill protected eagles from five years to 30 years, according to industry
sources.

The
permits protect companies from being sued for the bird deaths so long as they
follow certain mitigation and reporting requirements. An earlier version of the
rulewas
overturned by a court in 2015 because the agency did not perform an
environmental impact statement. FWS issued itsfinal programmatic EISon the rule in November and comments
on it were due Friday.

Thus
far, the service has only issued two five-year permits but it could soon grant
two more under the current regulations.

FWS on Fridayissuedits final EIS to grant two proposed
eagle take permits - one for construction and another for project operations
over five years - to the Power Company of Wyoming, which plans to build 500
wind turbines in southern Wyoming by 2020. During construction of the
Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Phase I Wind Energy Project, the permit would
allow developers to injure up to two bald eagles and eight golden eagles
annually. Depending on which size turbine blade the developer picks, FWS
estimated the project itself could kill one to two bald eagles and 10 to 14
golden eagles annually.

(CHEHALIS, WA) – Lewis County PUD Commissioners have
approved a budget of $74.6 million for 2017. The budget includes a balloon
payment of $6.4 million on bonds purchased to satisfy the acquisition of wind
power as mandated by Initiative 937 ten years ago. The budget also anticipates
increased power costs to the district from the Bonneville Power Administration.
The power costs of the district make up over two thirds of the total budget
expense.

These additional costs will cause the district to have a
budget deficiency of approximately $1.2 million that will drive the need for a
rate increase to customers in 2017. A cost of service analysis is currently
being conducted by an outside consulting firm to determine the amount of rate
increase that is needed. That whole process will begin with public rate hearings.

Lewis County PUD will also see savings in 2017 and for the
next 11 years by refinancing other bonds that were issued in 2008. The new bond
reduces the interest rate from 5.00 percent to 2.08 percent interest and
results in a total savings of nearly $3 million dollars. The savings will be
$575 thousand in 2017 and $264 thousand each year from 2019 through 2027.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

(PORTLAND, OR) – Senior Vice President of Power Services
Mark Gendron announced that he will retire from the Bonneville Power
Administration (BPA) in March 2017.

Gendron is responsible for BPA’s power scheduling functions,
generation asset management, power contracts and rates, power purchases and
acquisitions, energy efficiency and the business relationships with BPA’s
retail utility customers. Power Services produces revenues of nearly $3 billion
per year from the sale of about 11,000 average megawatts of power.

“Mark has been an incredibly valuable member of the BPA
executive team, blessed with an acute sensitivity to the needs of our customers
and a personal style and grace that has touched all who have worked with him,”
said Elliot Mainzer, BPA administrator and chief executive officer. “I will
miss his even keel and wise counsel and wish him and his wife Loraine many
happy years of retirement.”

Prior to serving in his current role, Gendron was vice
president of Northwest Requirements Marketing, responsible for marketing and
contracting the sale of requirements power to BPA customers.

Gendron has also served on committees and boards for a
variety of public power organizations over the years including the Idaho
Consumer-Owned Utilities Association, Idaho Energy Authority and Public Power
Council.

“As a leader coming from public power, Mark brought
important insight and talent to BPA that will be difficult to replace,” said
Scott Corwin, executive director of PPC. “He has taken on some of the agency’s
biggest challenges, but has remained a good friend and a highly respected
colleague who will be missed throughout the industry when he retires.”

Gendron came to BPA from Idaho Falls Power where he was the
general manager for 10 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Colorado and began his career as a design
engineer. He worked for various utility and engineering companies in the West
before joining Idaho Falls Power in 1985 as chief engineer.

“I have been fortunate and blessed to have capped off my
career at the Bonneville Power Administration, where I have had the privilege
every day of working with great people committed to delivering on our mission
that is so important to the people of the Northwest,” said Gendron.

The lead time on Gendron’s announcement will allow the
agency to conduct the federal selection process and provide a brief overlap
period before his departure. BPA will soon post a vacancy announcement for the
next senior vice president of Power Services, a Senior Executive Service
position.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

(PORTLAND, OR) – Bonneville Power Administration operators are prepared for the energy anomaly that they see every Thanksgiving Day. They have planned for an unusual bulge, or peak, in the morning as millions of people across the Pacific Northwest gather to cook meals, which rely heavily on the use of ovens and other appliances. After the big meal, system operators will be on hand to ramp power down during the tryptophan drop off.“Most of the year, electricity usage follows typical seasonal patterns but severe weather and special events can always present different, even dramatically different, realities,” said Elliot Mainzer, BPA’s administrator and chief executive officer. On a typical November weekday, BPA’s regional load sees two peaks – one in the morning and one in the evening. But on Thanksgiving we see a different pattern emerge. Unlike a typical morning where the most electricity usage peaks around 7 or 8 a.m., Thanksgiving ramps up at 9 a.m. as people cook their turkeys and pies. Power consumption on Thanksgiving then tends to stay up higher throughout the morning compared to a normal day when loads drop off in the middle of the day. When Thanksgiving loads start to wane, they stay low for the rest of the day, as cooking is done and the tryptophan sets in, rather than increasing again to an evening peak as they would on normal weekdays.BPA and other utilities around the Northwest keep watch on the electricity consumption of the region’s consumers day and night, 365 days a year. They ensure that there is enough output from power plants, which BPA provides mainly from renewable hydropower, and transmission available to keep the lights on. BPA’s power and transmission system experts carefully watch weather and special events that can impact electricity usage and line crews are available around the clock in case any of the over 15,000 circuit miles of high-voltage transmission lines go down.“This is a time of year we are even more thankful for the many men and women across the Northwest, at utilities big and small, who work diligently to keep power flowing so the rest of us can enjoy our holiday traditions,” said Mainzer.

(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Kristine Svinicki, the sole Republican on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is in the running for a high-level post at the Energy Department, potentially energy secretary, a source close to the Trump transition team tells ME.

Svinicki, who did not respond to a request for comment, had been widely expected to be tapped to head the NRC under the Trump administration and would face a relatively easier confirmation to another term, once her second term expires in July.

Harold Hamm, the billionaire CEO of the oil and gas company Continental Resources, has also been reported to be in the running for the position, although he has told his employees he's staying with the company, according to a little-noticed report in the Oklahoman last week.

Monday, November 14, 2016

(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Donald Trump's presidential victory, combined with the retirement of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, should revive the debate over the long-stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project that has burned through $15 billion over three decades, Pro's Darius Dixon reports. "I'm excited to work with the Trump Administration and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to quickly restore funding to continue the licensing process, as well as pass comprehensive nuclear waste management legislation for his signature," said Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), a leading Yucca backer who's seeking the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

President-elect Trump hasn't yet taken a position on Yucca, but he said last month during a visit to Nevada that he was "going to take a look at it." And that's music to the ears of the project's supporters, who have grown weary of opposition espoused by Hillary Clinton and Reid, who repeatedly pressured his caucus to squeeze Yucca funding out of spending bills. Though support for Yucca is strong, many supporters believe they will need to include the creation of temporary waste storage facilities - like one proposed for a site in Andrews County, Texas - to draw more Democrats off the fence.

Positions on the project do not fall exclusively along party lines. Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller, who is expected to have a tough re-election race in 2018, has vowed to keep fighting the project. Meanwhile, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the No. 4 Democrat in the Senate, told a dinner hosted by the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council this summer that the next Congress would take on "meaningful nuclear waste reform, which includes a place for Yucca Mountain," according to an attendee.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

(PORTLAND, OR) – The Bonneville Power
Administration today released its initial
rate proposal, which will support investments in the Federal Columbia River
Power System that provides renewable hydropower to 142 Northwest public
utilities. The proposed rates for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 will also support
investments to sustain and expand the federal transmission system. BPA is
proposing a 3.5 percent average wholesale power rate increase and a 1.1 percent
average increase to transmission rates for the two-year rate period.

“These
rates represent months of work to reduce budgets and focus on cost-management
measures to lower expected rate increases,” said Elliot Mainzer, BPA’s
administrator and chief executive officer. “The steps we have taken so far for
the 2018-2019 rate period have begun to shift BPA onto a more sustainable rate
trajectory and demonstrate our commitment to remaining our customers’ wholesale
provider of choice.”

BPA
started discussions on expense and capital spending levels for fiscal years
2018 and 2019 in June during the Integrated
Program Review and Capital Investment Review process. Customers,
constituents and stakeholders from around the region participated in the
process by taking a thorough look at BPA’s proposed spending levels. BPA has
used aggressive cost management, disciplined budgeting practices, operational
efficiency and revenue enhancements to lower expected costs in the final
spending levels released in October.

The
average proposed wholesale power rate is $34.94 per megawatt hour, an increase
of 3.5 percent for the rate period, or 1.7 percent annually. About half of the
rate increase is due to higher program costs such as the operations and
maintenance expenses BPA pays to the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of
Reclamation to run the federal hydro facilities, and increased costs of the
fish and wildlife program. The other half of the rate increase is due to lower
forecast sales due to general regional load loss and a slight reduction in
forecast system generation. In addition, many power customers will see a lower
proposed rate increase of 2.3 percent due to a one-time credit that was
generated from savings created from Regional Cooperation Debt transactions that
were initiated in 2014.

Transmission
Services was able to minimize spending increases by focusing on
mission-critical work and planning investments that provide the greatest
benefit to ratepayers, which is reflected in the 1.1 percent average
transmission rate increase for the rate period or 0.5 percent annually. BPA
believes it will still be able to provide reliable transmission service to its
customers and invest in substantial capital projects during the upcoming rate
period while delivering a rate increase that is less than the rate of inflation.

BPA
is also proposing a new financial reserves policy in this initial rate proposal
that will set targets for financial reserves levels. The proposed policy is
intended to maintain and strengthen BPA’s financial health, as well as support
BPA’s credit rating.

“BPA
is committed to working with customers and other constituents to identify
additional cost-management alternatives through the IPR 2 process,” saidMainzer.
BPA will hold an IPR 2 process in February to discuss a few unresolved cost
areas where the greatest potential exists to further reduce near-term spending
as BPA continues to focus on cost containment.

The
rate-setting process begins in November and will culminate with final rate
decisions in July 2017; the new rates will take effect on Oct. 1, 2017.

BPA
is a nonprofit federal wholesale utility that receives no congressional
appropriations and must recover its costs through its rates. The new rates will
affect local retail utilities differently depending on the amount of power and
type of services they purchase from BPA. Local utilities ultimately determine
the impact of BPA rates on individual businesses and residents.

Friday, November 4, 2016

(REPUBLIC, WA) -- Ferry
County PUD’s new solar EV charging station is in operation. The project has a
long history dating back to a “Solar Schools” project about a decade ago.
General Manager John Friederichs reports that a piece of faulty equipment from
that project was stored in the PUD’s basement until the manufacturer offered to
replace it, opening the door to use it for a new purpose.

Friederichs
says the PV equipment was from a PUD-owned off-grid system that was removed
from service when the customer was connected to the normal distribution grid.
The system had originally been paid for through a USDA/RUS grant. The remainder
of the new solar PV/charging system includes a used meter base/disconnect
purchased off eBay, a meter and related conduit and hardware. The Clipper Creek
charger, with a normal retail price of nearly $2,000 was donated by private
individuals through Plug-In North Central Washington, a non-profit subsidiary
of the North Central Washington Economic Development District. The use of the
charger is free to the vehicle owner with Plug-In North Central Washington
responsible for picking up the energy cost.

“The
difference with our system lies in the fact that the energy generated by the
solar modules feeds into the grid directly which gives a “net-metered”
installation of sorts, except that the utility owns the equipment rather than
the customer,” said Friederichs. So far the peak output has been just under
1800 watts AC.

As
of October 31, Ferry County PUD has put roughly 150 kilowatt hours back into
the grid, while providing 13 kWh to recharge a Tesla S (pictured below).
Should the energy used to charge vehicles ever exceed the energy generated
during the course of the year, Plug-In NCW will be billed annually for that
use; ensuring the PUD at least breaks even.

“We
see this as an economic development benefit to our community,” said
Friederichs. “When a driver connects a car to our charger, they will be
spending a couple of hours in Republic, enjoying a meal or even an overnight
stay.”

Early
in the planning, Mike Nelson, past director of the WSU Energy Extension Office,
referred to Republic as “The missing tooth in the smile of an electrified
Highway 20” and he was instrumental in spreading the work about the proposal,
which led to the offer of the donated charger.

Conversation with Secretary of State John Kerry is the
culmination of years-long effort

State Department finalizes C-175, authorizing talks with
Canada

(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Today, in a call with U.S. Senator Maria
Cantwell (D-WA), U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States
is ready to start talks with Canada on the Columbia River Treaty. The call
comes just hours after the State Department finalized Circular 175, authorizing
talks with Canada to modernize the treaty.
Cantwell has for years been urging the State Department to begin the
negotiation process.

Updating the Columbia River Treaty will present exciting new
economic opportunities for Washington State, as well as providing a new focus
on protecting the river’s ecosystem and addressing flood control.

The U.S. and Canada will work together to find win-win
solutions to manage the river, looking to cooperate on critical clean energy
solutions such as smart grids with intermittent power, grid-scale storage, and
clean infrastructure. The Treaty has not been updated since it was first
ratified in 1964.

The government of Canada had refused to begin talks until
the U.S. finalized its negotiating parameters, which are laid out in a document
called a Circular 175.

"The United States is officially ready to move forward
on negotiating a new Columbia River Treaty‎,"
said Senator Maria Cantwell after hearing the good news from Secretary of State
John Kerry. "A new agreement is critical to so many aspects of our
Northwest economy. I congratulate the administration on completing the Circular
175 negotiating terms and hope that now the Canadian Government will come to
the table and start detailing what a new hydro-agreement will look like."

The Circular 175 is based on regional recommendations
developed by stakeholders in the Columbia River Basin. The recommendations
balance ecosystem functions and community concerns including hydropower
generation and flood control.

Cantwell has been on the forefront in the charge to
modernize the treaty. Most recently, the Senator led 21 of her Senate and House
colleagues in a letter to Secretary Kerry pressing his agency to hasten its
finalization of the Circular 175. In March of this year, she spoke to Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the need to move forward with negotiations.
The Senator continued her push in June, meeting with Canadian Ambassador David
MacNaughton to discuss progress on the Canadian side. Last year, Cantwell sent
a letter to President Obama with 25 other members of the Pacific Northwest
Congressional delegation, urging the Administration to move forward with a
strategy for addressing the treaty. In 2014, Cantwell joined with 25 of her
colleagues to press for action on moving the process forward.

(CENTRALIA, WA) -- The weather in September in the Twin Cities was very close to the averages for the month.

KELA/KMNT weatherman Dean Dahlin says we were slightly warmer than average for the month with 58.8 degrees which is 4-tenths of a degree above average. For the month we received 2.45 inches of rain which is 35-hundredths of an inch above the average.

Dean says October starts to get cooler and wetter, with an average temperature of 51 degrees and 3-and-a third inches of rain.

While some utilities, such larger ones in
California, process applications in a little as one day, many utilities in 2015
took an average of 67 days to process requests, up from 46 days in 2014, said
thereportby EQ Research.

The report suggested lawmakers and
regulators can help utilities improve those timelines by requiring them to
create online application and fee payment processes, and by setting reasonable
processing deadlines with reporting requirements to track performance.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

(WASHINGTON, DC) -- It sounds like a
simple question, but it's proven anything but: Should wood pellets, paper mill
residues or dead and decaying trees be considered a carbon-neutral source of
electricity? As Pro's Esther Whieldonreports, the EPA has spent five years trying
to determine whether burning trees to generate electricity can help power
plants reduce their carbon footprint but still hasn't reached an answer.

Now lawmakers are prodding the agency
to deliver an answer that would favor the biomass industry,including through pending energy
and appropriations bills that may receive more attention when Congress returns
after the election. Industry supporters say national policy declaring biomass
to be carbon neutral would give the technology a much needed boost because
states would know they could include the fuel source in their compliance plans
for environmental regulations, such as the Clean Power Plan. "I believe
the science is firmly on our side that biomass is carbon neutral," Rep.Bruce Westerman,
co-chair of the Congressional Biomass Caucus, tells Esther.Environmental advocates are fighting
congressional efforts to declare biomass carbon neutral while the science is
still out at EPA, and they warn lawmakers risk repeating some of the same
mistakes that they made more than a decade ago with corn ethanol. "It
doesn't really lend itself to sweeping legislation about something like biomass
carbon neutrality because it is so feedstock specific and it really is best
left to the EPA, which is charged with determining the carbon impacts of these
different fuels," Sasha Stashwick, a senior advocate at the Natural
Resources Defense Council, said.

(CHEHALIS, WA) -- As part of a community effort to restore the Chehalis River Basin and put it on a path to recovery, the Washington Department of Ecology has completed a draft environmental report, officially called a programmatic Environmental Impact Statement.

The environmental review evaluated four basin-wide options that were developed and submitted to Ecology by the community to address flood damage and aquatic species habitat.

There will be a public hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 6 PM at the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

(GIG HARBOR, WA) -- Peninsula Light Company CEO Jafar
Taghavi thanked 60 Harbor Community Solar participants on Friday, Sept. 16,
during a ceremony held at the Harbor History Museum.

About 100 PenLight members purchased at least one of 1,850
available units last year, when the electric cooperative sought participation.
The 60-kilowatt array was installed last fall by A&R Solar of Seattle.

The project falls in line with Washington state’s renewable
energy incentive program, which will provide each participant a check annually
through 2020 based on the amount of energy produced by the system. The solar
energy is used by the Harbor History Museum, which has seen about a 30 percent
decrease in its electricity bills. The Harbor Community Solar project has been
generating power since November 2015.

PenLight is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric
cooperative. Since 1925, the utility has served the Gig Harbor and Key
peninsulas and Fox Island in western Pierce County. PenLight, a “full requirements
utility” of the Bonneville Power Administration, has grown to be the second
largest cooperative in Washington state. It serves more than 32,000 meters with
977 miles of line in 112 square miles of service territory.

About Me

Joel Myer works at an electrical utility in Washington State.
Prior to his current employment, he worked for nine years at the City of Shelton as Special Projects Coordinator.
In 1992, Joel served a three-month term as an appointed Mason County Commissioner. As far as it is known, he still holds the record for the shortest term for a county commissioner in Washington State.
From 1991 through 1992 Joel worked with Washington State University Cooperative Extension, where he conducted an extensive study of the special forest products industry and its economic value to the Pacific Northwest.
From 1980 to 1991 he was News Director at KMAS Radio in Shelton.
Joel is a 1991 graduate of the Evergreen State College, where his focus of study was economics.
Joel Myer is one of the 2018 award winners, Foundation for Water & Energy Education Haiku Contest.
He has been teaching himself to play the ukulele (with limited success) since 2003.